5th Grade Civil Rights Study

Helpful Links:

image courtesy Living Design

Charles Eames
image courtesy Curiosity Shoppe

About-
- American designer, worked with wife Ray in the 50's & 60's
- Mediums included architecture, furniture, industrial design, fine art, graphic design and film
Art Work
- Eames House http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eames_house_entry.jpg
- Library of Congress Exhibit: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/eames/eameshome.html
Powers of Ten -
- short documentary about directed by Charles and Ray in 1977 depicting the relative size and scale of the universe in factors of ten
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z53wTtGGA0

5th Grade Summer Reading Feedback
Penderwicks vs. Bud, Not Buddy. What did you think?

Summer Reading 2010 Book Talk

THINKING ABOUT summer 2010.pptx

April is National Poetry Month

image from Wordpress

Types of Poems

Cinquian ~ a 5 line poem
Haiku ~ Japanese verse poem of 3 short lines
Free Verse ~ unrhymed poem without a set pattern
Limerick ~ 5 line humorous verse poem
Poetry Idea Engine http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/poetry_engine.htm#
Shape Poems __http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/shape/__

Poem in Your Pocket Day, April 29th

Find a poetry book in the 811's OR Visit these links:
- http://www.poetry4kids.com/poems
- http://www.riverofwords.org/poetry/2009/index.html

Guest Author: Andrew Clements

Image Courtesy onebookAZkids

A Visit with Andrew Clements

His new book - Benjamin Pratt & the Keepers of the School, We the Children

Andrew Clements' Website

Activity: Author Challenge Task Cards

Task 1:

You have been selected as the Crossroads School student host. Your task is to introduce Andrew Clements to the audience before his presentation. You will need to prepare a two-minute summary about Andrew’s life, accomplishments and writings to the students who may not know anything about him. Please visit www.andrewclements.com/bio.html
and read Andrew’s biography. Browse the books he has written by reading about them and looking at the front covers from the website www.andrewclements.com/books.html and include this information in your summary. On a flashcard, write a 2 paragraph summary to read aloud as an introduction to the audience before Andrew’s presentation. Be prepared to read this out loud later this morning to your class.

Task 2: “Stump the Audience”: In order to get the audience familiar with Andrew’s books, you have been selected to create a trivia question to ask the audience while they are waiting for Andrew’s presentation. The goal is to give them practice in showing how well they know his books. Together with your partner, create four questions (2 questions each/2 books per person) about the plot, characters and events from one of Andrew’s books. Browse the website www.andrewclements.com/books.html and look through the FIC CLE section of the library to find 4 books to create questions about. The audience member with the correct answer will get a “I’m a Clements Scholar” sticker today after you create the questions.
Task 3:

You have been selected as a representative of Crossroads School to ask the questions during Andrew Clements’ presentation. Visit http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Andrew-Clements/1146268
and scroll down to the Message Board section of the page. Read through the questions that have already been asked, do you like the quality of the question? Look through Andrew’s website at www.andrewclements.com and research information about his book and life. Head over to the FIC CLE section of the library and browse through some of the books he has written we have in the library. After your research, create four thoughtful questions (two per person) you can ask Andrew. What do you wonder about him and his books? Think about you and your partner really want to know about this author.

Task 4: You, the Keeper of Andrew’s New Book: You have been selected as one of the audience members who gets access to Andrew’s new book before it goes on sale in April. Select another passage to be read aloud from We the Children: Keepers of the School. Be thoughtful about what you choose to read; it should be an important moment in the plot, but able to be understood by the audience. Because you haven’t read the entire book yet, visit Andrew’s site for the new book at www.keepersoftheschool.com Browse through and read some of the book to get familiar with the story. Choose a portion of the book INCLUDING ILLUSTRATIONS to SHOW ON THE DOC CAM you read aloud today to your class so that we become more familiar with Andrew’s new book.
Task 5: He Was a Poet and Didn’t Even Know It: Andrew Clements has also written poetry in addition to his novels. Visit his website at www.andrewclements.com and find the section that features his other forms of writing besides his books. Read the poetry he has written. Choose a poem to read aloud to the class, and your partner can choose a different poem to read aloud (2 poems total). Show us the website where you both found the poems using the laptop and projector.

March 2010 Book of the Month